AI has made it easier than ever to produce thought leadership, but leaders who want to stand out must offer something harder to copy: proof, risk and a point of view rooted in lived experience.
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Abby Wright is a director at Curley Company.
“When everyone’s super, no one will be.”
That jaw-dropping insight stems from the Disney animated classic “The Incredibles,” in which villain Syndrome, a mere un-super mortal, invents gadgets to give himself powers – and plans to sell them to the world. It’s a startling affront to superheroes everywhere. The viewer is left horrified at the idea of an everyman receiving powers. What would that mean for humanity?
I’ve heard AI referred to as “the great equalizer.” Ten minutes on LinkedIn proves the point. AI has made us all thought leaders. Anyone can generate a smart thought at the click of a button. The result, therefore, isn’t bad content – it’s indistinguishable content.
A Deloitte study found that Fortune 500 executive teams grew 23% since 2018, with individual roles expanding over 20%. We are drowning in leaders. AI didn’t just democratize thought leadership; it destroyed its scarcity.
Here’s the tough pill to swallow: Authenticity is not the solution.
“Personal stories,” or general “authenticity,” is perhaps the most overused response to AI saturation. It’s not wrong; it’s just no longer enough. Research shows authenticity online is often strategically manufactured. A recent study published in the Oxford Journal of Communication contends that the purported authenticity of “ordinary people” participating in social media dialogues is often a “theatrical performance that aims to appear genuine.” Ouch.
Now that everyone can produce compelling ideas on demand, the differentiator isn’t having thoughts – it’s proving them.
The leaders who break through aren’t better storytellers; they’re just harder to replicate. In today’s world, thought leaders must demonstrate:
- Stake (What do you risk by saying this?) Through my focus on executive visibility, I’ve worked with countless C-suite leaders on their messages and stories over the years. I know it’s getting good when they start getting uncomfortable. Fake authenticity comes naturally; real life authenticity comes daringly.
- Proof (What have you actually done?) When everyone can say something smart, the only thing left is to show something true.
- Scarcity (Could anyone else plausibly say this?) If yes, it’s content. If no, it’s leadership.
As communication leaders, this means we have to zoom out – and help our leaders do the same (from LinkedIn posts to live interviews to annual letters).
- Stop scaling content and start curating conviction. This often looks like pushing leaders from a calendar fixation to a conviction conversation (say that 5 times fast) – so we aren’t spraying POVs into the ether just to hit a quota.
- Replace “What do we think?” with “What have we proven?” AI can generate perspective, but only practice can generate proof. Lived experience becomes the backbone of a story that can elevate a job title to a thought leader.
- Pressure-test every idea: Could this be AI-generated? Don’t be afraid to push on this until the answer is no. Until the messaging reflects something we’ve seen, done, risked or achieved, we are just talking about ideas. Perspective without proof loses power.
Because when everyone’s a thought leader, no one will be.
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